spaghetti

Spaghetti is an Italian plural treated in English as a singular mass noun — like broccoli, graffiti, confetti and macaroni. The Italian singular is spaghetto, "a string," a diminutive of spago, "cord." So spaghetti means "little strings," which is exactly what it is.

The gh is the Italian spelling convention for keeping the g hard before a front vowel, the same device visible in ghetto and Alghero; English kept the letters without needing the rule. The word appears in English in 1845, spelled sparghetti in the fourth edition of Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery, where it is glossed as "Naples vermicelli" — a sign that the food was still unfamiliar enough to need explaining. Spaghetti Western is from 1969 and spaghetti strap, named for being thin and cord-like, from 1972 — which returns the word to its original meaning.

spaghetti
(n.)
Italian dish of macaroni made long and rather thin, 1845 (as
sparghetti,
in 4th edition of Eliza Acton's
Modern Cookery
where it is defined as "Naples vermicelli"), from Italian
spaghetti,
plural of
spaghetto
"string, twine," diminutive of
spago
"cord," a word of uncertain origin.
As a term for a dish of spaghetti served with tomato sauce, by 1884 (again as
sparghetti
).
In reference to interlaced roadways by 1963.
Spaghetti Western
(one set in the U.S. Old West but filmed in Italy) is attested by 1969.
Spaghetti strap
is from 1972, so called for being thin and cord-like.
also from 1845

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